ETJB

Pretty good, huh?

Monday, February 28, 2005

Sighting

Today at 12:55, leaving Corner Bakery on 19/L: William Kennedy Smith. With a bag of lunch.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

The Bastards Finally Got Him

...as my friend AT says.

That very same night, my cat pulled Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail off the shelf. This was the very first drug, I mean political book, I ever read.

Also distressing, Dr. Gene Scott's passing. When my father was one of the first to get a satellite dish back when satellite programming was free, Dr. Gene Scott was a pioneer having a station on 24/7. We were fascinated and intrigued by this unconventional preacher. (Was he a crook? I don't know enough about him....)

The common thread: two hard-living, extremely intelligent egomaniacs. Both were probably hard to be around for long periods. But they both extended the margins for us mere mortals.

RIP,you two.

Monday, February 14, 2005

When Adults At Work Act Like They Are In Kindergarten

At my last job, there was a nice lady in accounting. She had done a favor for her sister the weekend past. So, her sister sent her a dozen roses the next week as an act of appreciation. They were at peak bloom, sitting on her desk, in a pretty vase.

Later that same afternoon before she could even get the flowers home, she noticed that one of the roses was missing when returned to her desk after lunch. Who would steal a rose from a person’s desk? To further insult, the inconsiderate thief cut the stem and left it in her garbage can.
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At my job before last, it was decided that our department would forgo the regular Christmas gift exchange and instead, donate old clothes to a local homeless shelter during the holiday season.

The office manager and organizer was a socially inept person. For example, she would freely sample your lunch with her uninvited and unwashed fingers. She once dried her wet socks in the microwave. (Upon this discovery, the department wise guy entered the kitchen and asked, “Who’s cooking soup, so early?”). She also generally conversed in grunts, moans, and sighs.

Anyway, this office manager was responsible for collecting, sorting, and bagging the department’s donation. It was during this process, that she admired a colleague’s donated sweater. “This is nice!, “ she proclaimed as she carefully folded it before taking to her office for safekeeping. We were all appalled that someone with a decent salary would STEAL A CHRISTMAS DONATION meant for the homeless.

Not willing to let it go, an angry co-worker, who specialized in pettiness, took a pair of scissors to the sweater while the office manager was at lunch. Unfazed or unaware, the sweater, complete with six inch slash across the spine was a regular part of our office manager’s wardrobe for the next few years.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

More Orwellean Logic

Or beating plowshares into swords.

Wait, that’s not what the bible says!

File under: “Freedom on the march, etc.”

Friday, February 04, 2005

Metro Sighting: Yesterday 5:30 p.m.

Hassidic man in full regalia--black coat, grey beard, black hat, scuffed shoes--praying from the bible, fully bobbing, sitting next to a nervous looking tourist with "Am I gettin ready to get blowed up?" look on his face.